By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Hilo rode a balanced attack with steady pitching and outstanding defense to defeat Southern California 6-3 to wrap up pool play Sunday in the Little League Western Regional Seniors baseball tournament in Ontario, Calif.
The nine-team tournament for players ages 15-17 runs through Tuesday with the champion advancing to the Seniors World Series, Aug. 11-18, in Bangor, Maine. Hilo is the defending Western Regional and World Series champion.
The unbeaten Big Islanders (4-0) claimed the No. 1 seed in Pool B while Southern California (3-1) secured the No. 2 seed.
In today’s semifinals, Southern California will take on Pool A No. 1 seed Northern California (2-1) at noon Hawaii Standard Time, followed by Hilo against Pool A No. 2 seed Oregon (2-1) at 3 p.m. Northern California won the tiebreaker — for most runs scored — to earn Pool A’s top seed.
Today’s winners will advance to the championship game at 3 p.m. HST Tuesday at Littleton Field.
Elijah Cruz, who picked up the win, started for Hilo on Sunday and pitched two shutout innings. He gave up two hits while striking out one and walking one. He was followed on the mound by Chay Toson (3 innings, 0 runs, 3 walks), Tyler Thornley (2/3 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 walks), Tyler Higa-Gonsalves (1/3 inning, 1 hit, 2 runs) and Alika Guillermo (1 inning, 0 runs. 0 hits).
“Elijah and Chay really did a good job holding them down,” Hilo manager Zackery Higa said. “But as I told all of our pitchers, we wanted Arizona to earn their way on base and if you walked anyone, you were coming out. We also wanted to keep our pitch count down so we could use as many pitchers as we can in the semifinals and hopefully championship game.
“But we’re taking it one game at a time. We don’t take nobody for granted. We have to be ready to play Oregon.”
Hilo scored four runs in the top of the second inning with Higa-Gonsalves driving in two runs with a single; Cruz drilling an RBI single and Micah Ka’aukai plating the final run with a sacrifice fly.
Arizona stormed back with three runs in the sixth, but the Big Islanders answered with two runs in the seventh to close out scoring. Thornley came on in the seventh and shut out the dangerous opponent to earn a save, according to Hilo assistant coach Clayton Ah Hee.
“Tyler did a great job in the seventh,” Ah Hee said. “And our defense was outstanding again with no errors. It seems like the team that makes the least amount of mistakes in this tournament wins.”
In four games, Hilo has recorded three errorless performances.
Bronson Pulgados led the Big Islanders’ eight-hit attack with two singles. Adding base hits for Hilo were Cruz, Higa-Gonsalves, Thornley, Kihei Serrao, Evyn Yamaguchi and Chad Teshima.
Arizona starter Brandon Weed went two innings and took the loss.
“Our boys are pumped up, they’re very excited to get into the semifinals and they want to win it all,” Higa said. “But they’ve won as a team, from the players who got in the game to the ones on the bench cheering. And we want to thank the people back home — we know in our hearts that they’re supporting us.”
Higa said about 150 people watched Sunday’s game against Southern California and he expects the crowds to get bigger today.
“There’s a lot of excitement going on,” the Hilo manager said. “I think Southern California will win tomorrow (today), and we hope to play them in the championship. But like I said, we’re not thinking ahead. We’re thinking about Oregon and what we need to do to move on.”
In Hilo’s earlier Pool B action, the Big Islanders defeated Nevada 13-3, Montana 10-0 and Arizona 9-7 before taking on Southern California.
Northern California and Oregon were joined in the four-team Pool A by host Ontario and Washington.
Hilo 040 000 2— 6 8 0
So. Cal 000 003 0 — 3 5 2